Scopolamine
by fearless-phoenix
Summary: A mysterious girl show up at the 4077th, but whether she can help people with their problems or tangle them up in her own is yet to be seen
1. Meeting Ginny

**Disclaimer:** I don't own MASH or anything for that matter and if I did I'd buy a pony. But I don't so don't sue.

OK guys and gals this is my first MASH fan fic so _any_ constructive criticism would be mucho helpful! I'm sorry if it's cheesy and very Mary Sue-ish but I hope not.

Scopolamine: a colorless thick liquid poisonous alkaloid found in some plants of the nightshade family and used as a truth serum, to prevent motion sickness, and as a sedative.

Hawkeye looked down at his lunch with apprehension and cautiously poked a gray lump that at one time in it's former life might have been a moldy piece of bread. Prudently, he shoved his tray across the table and gulped down his coffee that reminded him of the taste of chalk when he had to clap out the erasers after class and the white clouds of dust found a way into his mouth.

"Lunch not agreeing with you Hawk?" BJ poked; jokes were the only thing keeping the two awake after another O.R. session.

"We're not on speaking terms," Hawkeye tiredly replied, his lids slowly declining over his blood-shoot eyeballs.

"Howdy boys. Mind if I join you?" Colonel Potter had just walked into the mess tent, cup of coffee in hand.

"Ah Colonel, I see you've decided to join us for the world's only kamikaze lunch," BJ said as he scooted down the wooden bench.

"I'll bypass the flight today boys. Just stopping by after checking on Sophie.

"And how is that old gray mare?" BJ inquired.

" Ain't what she used to be," Hawk answered back in a singsong voice.

"Your probably the closest Pierce. That mare's stocked up, she hasn't been exercised in so long that the fluids built up in her legs. Damn, a horse like that shouldn't be cooped up like. Deservers to be ridden more to be taken care of better. I just haven't had the time, being a doctor and a C.O. doesn't leave much time for Sophie.

Hawkeye opened his dreary eyes and looked into the aged, but very alive face of his C.O. At lines over his cracked face that weren't there when he had first joined the cavalry, when being with horses was the only thing that he had time for.

"Come on Colonel cut yourself some slack. This place is hell, can't expect to have to much fun," BJ said in a soothing voice.

"But it isn't fair to her damn it!" Potter replied slamming his fists into the wooden table.

Both surgeons just looked at Potter for a moment, suspired at the sudden out lash.

"Sorry boys. It was a rough session. I think I'll go catch 50 winks." And with that, Potter walked out of the mess tent and to his bed, where even the thrilling adventures of Zane Gray were going to have to wait.

Hawkeye and BJ soon followed in suit, collapsing on their army cots and promising the martini glasses that they would get drunk later.

The next couple of days were spent leisurely visiting the Officers Club, whittling away in Post-Op and sleeping. Everyone in camp noticed the extra effort that the Colonel was putting in to spend time with Sophie. He would often go out of his way after visiting the latrine to stop at Sophie's coral and scratch the mare in between the ears and let her lick his hand in hopes of finding a sweet morsel of hay to nibble on.

But most of the time he would be called away by Kilinger with an urgent phone call or some papers that needed his signature. At meetings that he, himself, had called his eyes would become glassy and unfocused. Every so often he would crane his next and try to see if he could see if Sophie was still there. He had taken on the attitude of a kid waiting to be let of detention to go play with his friends.

It was a crisp spring day in Korea when Colonel Potter walked with purpose towards Sophie's coral. He had just won himself a few free hours by burying Klinger with forms and reports that he needed to fill out. He grabbed a brush and began stroking her chestnut coat. His nostrils dilated as a wave horse smell lingered around his head the same way Mildred's perfume would on a hot muggy day in Missouri.

He was half way to reaching for his saddle when the loud speakers crackled alive and Sophie's ears pricked toward them,

"ATTENTION, ATTENTION ALL PERSONAL INCOMING WOUNDED! ALL MEDICAL TEAMS REPORT TO TRIAGE. SORRY FOLKS.

"Damn!!" He looked into Sophie's kind brown eyes filled with question to where he was going. "Sorry girl, I guess I'll have to take a rain check.

He set off at a run toward the bus that had just pulled into the compound. He entered the bus first Charles at his ankles. The two surgeons quickly fluttered between patient making orders for more plasma and blood and giving the order of which they would operate. It was Charles who first reached Frank Porter, Red Cross worker, father and fatally wounded.

"Colonel Potter, if you be so kind to call for Father Mulcahy?" He said as he exited the bus to fingers keeping an eye on his patient's pulse.

"Sure thing Winchester. Corpsman," he waggled his finger as to beckon to have him bring the Father. The Father soon was hastening on to the bus, kissing his stole on the way.

"So that's it, you're not even going to try and save him. What kind of place is this?" a new voice had entered the mix of moaning, dying and confusion. At first Potter mind raced back to Hannibal, to his daughter's voice but all to quickly realized that it couldn't be her. There was a teenaged girl sitting on one of the bunks, dark jade green eye's staring him down.

"I'm sorry there's nothing we can do sweetie. Now let me help you," Potter said soothingly.

"Don't call me that! Only my father could call me that and now he's dead!" She let an accusatory index finger fly out at Frank Porter. She had nasty cuts across her face that was still bleeding. Her eyes were filled with pearly white tears.

"Come on let's get you out of here. What's your name?" Potter said as he led the girl from the bus.

"Virginia Porter, but my dad called my Ginny," Ginny was trying her very hardest to keep from sobbing, waves of numbness setting in over her mind trying to protect her from the hurt. She was trying to forget what had happened.

"Colonel we need you in surgery!" Margaret's voice carried across the compound. She eyed the girl as one of the corpsmen took her away. "What's a young girl doing in a war zone?

"Your guess is as good as mine, but we have more pressing matters right now," the Colonel replied as he made his way into the scrub room.


	2. A History Revealed

Ok so I haven't updated in an eternity, I really had most of it done but I just kind of forgot about this. Sorry. If your American I hope ya had a good 4th of July. Even if your not, I still hope it was a good day for you. Well enough rambling. Onwards!

 **Disclaimer**: I'd I owned MASH there would be an all MASH channel and it would only play MASH. hehe

         The O.R. session dragged on like all the others. Hours of patching people up, playing hide-and-go-seek with shrapnel and the moments of silence when a kid was to far gone to be saved.  Most of these people were innocent Koreans, leading innocent lives in a not so innocent place. Ginny was but a nagging thought at the back of people's minds; they had more important things to worry about first.

         "Colonel all that's left is the girl," Margaret announced after eight hours.

         "Good I'll take her," Hawkeye said, snapping off his gloves. "Close for me would you Kelleye? Thanks.

         Hawkeye walked out into Pre-Op where Ginny was sitting wordlessly, lips pursed together in the corner invisible to the rest of the world. Hawkeye approached her with great caution. Teenagers, in his eyes, were boiling cesspools of hormones, awkwardness and grease.

         "Hey kid, you doing all right?" Hawkeye queried. She looked up and Hawkeye almost recoiled. Most of the cuts on her face had stopped bleeding but flakes of dried blood still remained upon her swollen red cheeks.  Her eyes were extremely bloodshot and she had the look of a wounded animal.

ÔWhat ever happened to people becoming beautiful when they cried? She looked like the child of Swamp Monster and the Thing That Ate Brooklyn.' Hawkeye thought.

"I'm fine. Now mind your own beeswax." She said quietly but with much venom in her voice. Hawkeye starred at her. Most normal people would pity the girl whose father was taken by the war. But Hawkeye did not react like normal people. He had just gone through another seemingly endless O.R. session where other people had died. They had children too. She wasn't the lone victim here.

"Look _kid_, I don't have time for this. Go back to where you came from!" He shouted the words. As they echoed around the empty Pre-Op he regretted venting his anger on the poor girl. "Sorry I didn't mean to do that. Can I look at the cuts on your face?" He offered out his hands. Ginny stared at it warily trying to decide how longer she could fight everything. "I promise I don't bite," Hawkeye offered laughter lighting up his exhausted features.

Ginny, carefully, put her smooth small hand into his rough and bloodstained hand and the surgeon pulled her up and led her into the bandaging room and began cleaning all of her cuts.

"So," he asked. "What's a pretty girl like you doing in our neck of Korea?" She hesitated only slightly before unfolding her tale. She knew that they would need to find out,

ÔMight as well do it while most of me is still numb,' she thought.

"Well I was born in the states, in Colorado to be exact. Anyway my mother died giving birth to me. Since I had no other siblings it was just my dad and I. We were very close. On cold nights he would light up the fireplace and make hot chocolate and we would snuggle under a warm blanket. Sometimes we would go horseback riding together. He would ride on his old horse named Stan and I would ride on my mare Gypsy. In Colorado there's always time to ride and wander through the trees and streams.

"Then the war started. Daddy worked for the Red Cross at home and they were transferring him to Korea to help relocate refuges. But there was the matter of me. Everyone on my dad's side of the family was killed in WWII from air raids in Britain and my mom's side of the family was to old to care for me. He had no other choice but to take me to Korea.  We sold our home and our horses. Saying good-bye to Gypsy was one of the hardest things I've ever had to do. At night I would let my mind drift back to Colorado and I would ride Gypsy through the mountains and pick berries. Then I would wake up and the taste of Koran dust in my mouth compared to the lush berries would only remind me how far from home I really was. Korea wasn't that bad, after we got used to it. After a while my dad and I picked up the language and became friends with some of the locals. We were happy, well happy as you can be in Korea, until today.

"We were visiting another village near here when the shelling began. My father and I were running to a near by cave for shelter. My father was running behind me when a shell exploded and part of a roof knocked over my father, trapping his legs. ÔDaddy!' I screamed shells still exploding around me.  ÔRun Virginia! If you love me run!

"And then time seemed to slow down and the cries and scream seemed to be turned down. I had become deaf to everything expect my father, my daddy.  I could see his loving eye looking at me. He was brave Ôtill the end. Then making its way through my quiet horror I could hear another shell falling. I could see the look of horror on his face as his life was snuffed out like a candle. I could smell the horrible stench of mortar and blood. One of the villagers grabbed me and I screamed for my release. The medics soon found us and took us here." She ended her tale quietly and drew her arms and legs in hopping to become so small that she might disappear.

Hawkeye put down the bandage and looked mournfully into her eyes. He wanted to cry with her and lose himself in her sorrow, but he couldn't.  All he could do was blame it on the damn war.

"What are you going to do now?

"I haven't really thought of that yet." She added barely moving her lips.

"Well for the next few days you'll be staying at chez 4077th. Those were some pretty nasty cuts and we need to watch them for infection. Come on, I'll wheel you into Post-Op.

Later that night everybody huddled around the same table in the mess tent. Occasionally someone would take a sip of the bad coffee that they had grown used to over the months. Hawkeye had retold Ginny's story to everyone, they sat in silence absorbing it all.

"Damn war," Potter repeated absentmindedly into the silence a few time.

 "She can't stay here forever you know," Margaret was the first one to say anything constructive.

"She say's she is sixteen. Alone in the world at sixteen. Erin will be sixteen someday," BJ said to no one in particular. Hawkeye remained in a stony silence and Father Mulcahy addressed the group.

"I think it would be best Colonel it we perhaps contacted the Red Cross to see if they have any records of her. Maybe then, they can get her back stateside.

"Father, though I hate to disagree with a priest, she has no residence to return to," Charles' thick Boston accent cut it's way into the conversation

"Maybe then, she could be of some use to Sister Theresa's orphanage?" The Father replied back. Silence consumed the Mess Tent as the group considered the option.

"She still could be near if we found out she had relatives in the States," the ever practical Margaret said pointing her index finger into mid-air to emphasize her point.

Colonel Potter sighed. "Looks like we have a winner folks. When she has recovered, we'll ship her over to the orphanage.


End file.
